Does a heavy bag have a place in my routine?

[bigdude]

Hi all,

 

A little background for you:

 

44yo, 308lbs (down from 350) with a target of 250 in July 2016.  I'm doing treadmill/elliptical 4-5 days per week and I'm 6 weeks or so into SL5x5.  I'm eating a modest deficit with a 2lb /week goal. Protein strong, whole grains only, nothing boxed.

 

For some reason, I have the idea of adding a heavy bag to my home gym...  I guess I want to hit some stuff and do something with my new found and developing strength.

 

So, I'm wondering:  Is there a good place for the heavy bag in my routine?  Or will it just interfere with recovery from my lifting sessions?  It would be a month or more away before I'd add it.  I'm thinking it would allow me some upper body cardio (and a little stress relief).

 

Do any of you make use of a heavy bag?  If so, how do you incorporate it?

 

Thanks,

Matt

[HedgeMage]

I use a heavy bag.  If you think you'll enjoy it, or if you have martial arts related goals, do it!

 

One caveat: if you aren't a martial artists and haven't been taught to punch properly, learn rather than injuring yourself.  I've seen a lot of people -- especially guys for some reason -- who have funny ideas about how a punch should look (from TV maybe?) and do things that are hell on their hands and/or wrists, especially given the repetition.

[BaconHunter]

Heavy bag stuff can be a good conditioning option. You can easily swap out a treadmill session for a heavy bag session.

 

You could do intervals. Pick a combo (like jab-jab-hook or something) and do that for 30 seconds. Rest 30 seconds. Do that 10 times. You'll be toast afterwards

[DerekP]

You can easily do a heavy bag routine for either a sprint workout or for steady-state. I like doing sprints. 30 sec hitting as fast and hard as you can followed by 2 to 3 min of rest. Rinse and repeat. Starting out you may want to do 15-20 second rounds. Sprints work better when you're closer to the bag, so I do low left hook, low right hook, high left hook, high right hook - repeat to bell. (I have a ring timer app on my phone) Next round I start low right hook. Next 2 round I switch leads.

 

For steady state I go much slower and do 3 minutes rounds with 30-60 sec rests. My progression looks like this:

 

jab

jab, cross

jab, cross, hook

jab, cross, hook, cross

jab, cross, hook, cross, step in, low hook, high hook, push off

 

I add kicks, but I'm not sure you kick.

 

Change Leads and Repeat

Continue til the bell rings. When the bell rings, finish each round with 20 hooks like in the sprint rounds. (If you finish with the hook sprints, give yourself a longer break.)

Power isn't terribly important on your longer rounds. If you're too tired keep punching, but ease off the power.

 

You can use any progression you want. Progression is important. Use one or you'll start improvising and wipe yourself out (or at least I do).

 

 

This is a great way to develop some solid cardio output. And fun... if you like to hit stuff.

 

Oh - and  you can replace any of your treadmill work with either of these sessions.